the marketing attractions podcast

Conversations on How Nonprofit Attractions Drive Attendance Through Marketing

Expanding Your Social Media Ads Beyond Meta and TikTok

Jenny gives examples and ideas on when and why zoos, aquariums, museums and gardens run ads on social media platforms other than Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. 

We talk about…

  1. Pinterest = wedding planning, holidays, fashion and art 
  2. Reddit = really niche audiences like sneakerheads 
  3. LinkedIn = corporate audiences for meetings and events, donations
  4. Snapchat = not worth it unless you have a large social budget 
  5. X = stay away
  6. Threads = not there yet


This podcast is produced by attend media.

attend helps non-profit attractions drive visitation through paid media. Download our free guide to media planning for non-profit attractions at our site – attend.media

Episode Transcript:

You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how nonprofit attractions are increasing attendance and sharing their missions through marketing. Your hosts are Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attend Media. Jenny, today’s topic, expanding your social media ads beyond meta and TikTok. That’s gonna be a fun one. Yeah, a lot of channels that you can explore for supporting different campaign initiatives beyond those kind of big three. So I’m assuming the assumption is everyone’s running meta. So Facebook and Instagram, maybe some attractions are diving into TikTok, but maybe some of these nonprofit attractions that we work with aren’t considering some of these other social media platforms. What are some of these other social media platforms? So from an ad perspective, today we’ll focus on Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter. Which ones are your favorite? I’m a Pinterest fan myself. Yeah. And a lot of time diving into recipes and even like travel content. And where I spend a lot of time. I dabble on the Reddit. I like me some Reddit. We’ll talk about the demographics and why that makes sense. And just a little bit. Got it. All right. Pinterest. Talk to us about it. Yep. So Pinterest is, talk about who’s using it first. It is to surprise very high skewing females. About 75% of the audience or users are female. And when we look at other social platforms, just to kind of compare it, we’re usually seeing some around like it’s a pretty even split or maybe like 55% female. So 75% female is obviously pretty, a pretty big skew there compared to other platforms. And then I think maybe people were sleeping on Pinterest a little recently, maybe thinking it was getting a little older. But it’s actually about 30% of their largest age group is really kind of this younger millennial. So 25 to 34. And we’re seeing a lot, a lot more usage among the Gen Z crowd as well too. When it comes to things like fashion. So still Pinterest puts out their trends every single year. Their predictions are typically spot on and come to be true. So it’s a platform that young and old are using. It’s kind of nicely spread out. It’s not dominated necessarily by one particular age group. And it’s also very affluent. So 45% of users have household income over 100,000. So what does that mean for nonprofit attractions? Well, I think one of the really interesting things about Pinterest is it’s really a visual search engine. So people turn in this platform a lot of times most of the searches are non-branded searches. So we think about brand versus non-branding. I think a lot of people’s mind goes to Google and paid search where maybe a lot of the keywords that you’re bidding on are actually your own brand name. So I’m going into search, you know, the zoo Tampa, right? Like I know that’s what I want. And that’s where a lot of my traffic and conversion is coming from. Whereas in Pinterest, if we kind of think about that, they might be searching activities to do with my family. So a little bit more of that non-branded. Got it. So branded search, that term you’re saying I’m going into Google or fill in the blank zoo Tampa, non-branded search, things to do in Tampa. And you’re saying that you’re seeing more of this, quote unquote, non-branded search in a platform like Pinterest. Yeah. And social media in general is really kind of, I think a lot of people are starting to figure out how do I utilize this as a search platform because consumers are starting to utilize it as a search platform. But Pinterest was kind of our built that way, right? So it’s kind of the similar to YouTube, right? YouTube’s a video search platform is really kind of how we think about that. You’re going to find information and you want it presented to you in a video format. And Pinterest is the same, but with an image. Hmm. I know you really like labels and putting things in categories and buckets, you know, when you attack a media plan should Pinterest really be in our social media list? Yes. So I would still keep this in the social social platform. I wouldn’t necessarily put it all the way to search, but what I will tell you is I’ve been super impressed with some results that we’ve seen on Pinterest compared to search in one particular category and that is weddings. So let’s think about how consumers are using this. So Zola, which is a wedding planning site, they executed a survey, looked, you know, where their brides or their brides to be were getting in for their inspiration about weddings and the number one reference source for wedding planning for these brides to be was Pinterest. So I don’t think it’s shocking that Pinterest is kind of replaced like the print bridal guys from the past, but it’s that’s where almost everyone is really kind of starting that initials that initial search for content. So is that kind of what you’re doing with some of the campaigns you’re overseeing? Are you moving your wedding budgets or your wedding campaigns? Are you moving those dollars out of the bridal guides, print, and into Pinterest? Yeah. So we’ve done this for a while. Shifting budget away from that into Pinterest, really kind of shifting that budget into search and social in general, but the really interesting thing that we’ve seen is I think everyone’s first thought is, you know, go on Facebook and Instagram to run your your bridal or event based ads. And what we found was it just didn’t convert as well. So the CPMs were kind of high, the cost per clicks were kind of high. There is some targeting when the Facebook and Instagram for people who are engaged, but that’s someone who’s like actually collect on this button and their profile to say that they’re engaged. So I don’t think as many people are doing that and updating their profiles in that sense anymore. There’s some other behavioral cont targeting that they can do to identify that as well too. But Pinterest is all contextually based. So I am searching, you know, garden wedding ideas in Orlando, Florida, right? That’s a pretty specific search that I’m maybe not doing in Google. And I’m certainly not doing in Facebook or maybe just a little bit. So it becomes a really great platform to be able to deliver that message and get in front of them. Okay. So weddings for Pinterest, anything else? Some other interesting things are travel and holiday planning. So those are two things that that are big trends in the space. But I want to talk about holiday a little bit because holiday planning or holiday searches on Pinterest start pretty early. So they start about five or six months of Christmas in July. That’s when they start searching in Pinterest. So not saying that you should try to pre-sell tickets in July, but if we think about, I think a lot of events are probably likely to sell out or you know, you’re getting enough buzz right around Christmas that your goal is usually to try to get out in advance to get it on their consideration set for what they’re going to do that holiday season. If you have a holiday, you know, a light show or exhibit. And this could be a great place to try to get out early because again, people are starting to plan and those search that search for them is starting to increase beginning in July. So maybe early November, late October, if you’re doing some pre-sell tickets, that could be a good alignment and just running through the season could be great. So don’t sleep on it. It’s definitely a channel to do some testing in and if I were going to test for a client, again, weddings number one. And then I think a holiday doing a little bit of testing in there might be a good one too. Anything else? There are some, you know, we mentioned fashion with Gen Z. I mean fashion just in general in terms of trends on Pinterest. So this could be another good tie-in for something like museums, museums at, you know, the art and fashion culture obviously are kind of feet off of each other. So I would say as a museum, if you had an event that maybe align nicely with, you know, with that fashion culture or searches, like that could be another good one to place in there. But really, I think, you know, it’s all about testing. So don’t be afraid to test the campaign on this channel. There’s a lot of initiatives that can support. I was like to do say, make sure you’re doing a good job at Facebook and Instagram first, but at dabbling and some testing and some of these channels can be a good idea. Yeah, it’s kind of cool. There’s a museum in my area that’s doing an exhibit on art deco and fashion is a big part of that exhibit. So I can see the tie in there. Yeah. Okay. What’s next? Reddit? Reddit. So demographics are pretty different from Pinterest. 62% male. 36% are between 18 and 29, followed by 22% of the audience between 30 and 49. And you said it’s your favorite channel. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about Reddit? Yeah, like I’m definitely the demo for that. Reddit. So I think what makes Reddit different is it’s designed to be more conversational, more feedback, more back and forth. So the way Reddit is organized is everything is under a subreddit. So you would join this subreddit or this community. Let’s take golf, for example, people will go in there and post, hey, how’s my golf swing looking? And they’re actively looking for comments for people to give feedback for. So maybe some more social media platforms are a little bit more, I’m putting it out there. I get a like, a heart, whatever it may be. The expectation with Reddit is you’re going to get a paragraph or at least a couple thoughts. So people are actually typing comments out. I would say that’s the biggest difference. Kind of like a little bit like YouTube in terms of how people might be searching for content or answers. Which are actually getting the response to answer your question. It could be it’s a little bit more scroly where you’re just kind of going through the feed and you find something that catches your eye or most like a cora, if you will. Like somebody’s legitimately asking a question and they want feedback. So I would say that’s the biggest difference. Okay. Well, let’s think about how we can maybe use or execute some ad campaigns in this channel. So like you said, it’s very much like Q&A style, maybe not a lot of visual in our in ad spaces. There can of course be visual. There’s video image formats that you can run, which the nice thing is it does kind of stand out a little bit from all of the text that you’re going through and consuming. Much like a Twitter, right? So Twitter was very short text, quick thoughts and then you know, from an ad perspective, you can definitely put images and things like that in there. But I think what’s interesting is you mentioned the subreddit. So these are kind of like little communities, right? Of people who are sharing a lot of information and their subreddits on things to do in Atlanta, right? There are there’s subreddits on, you know, a lot of really like niche targets that can really align nicely with really niche exhibits or events that you might have going on. So one of the things I think of if I’ve read it a few times for some nonprofit attractions, but one of the things that I think of is I go back after living in Atlanta for 10 years. There was a great exhibit at the high museum, I believe, was doing it and it was all about sneaker culture. Did not work on that campaign, did not run anything for it, but I think of that exhibit and the tie-in or like that, how like, you know, this culture is so one kind of hard to reach, but two, they’re like mega fans, right? Like, they’re on Reddit. They are on Reddit and they’re talking about sneakers. Yes. So being able to find some of those subreddits, especially locally, like that can be a really nice tie-in. So when I think about Reddit and even Pinterest is that you have that nice contextual alignment, whereas like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, well, you you can’t like get into, you can, you can use what people are talking about as like a way to help target your ads, but you can’t only run your ads in content about art exhibits, right? You can’t only run your ads in content about travel or fashion. It’s going to be running it to people who like that kind of content, but it’s not going to be running in that content. Pinterest and Reddit, definitely more of a contextual playing contextual alignment. That’s really nice. Yeah, I love that idea. That’s super clever. Authenticity, I think is just real. Yeah. That’s a blanket statement for any type of advertising, but if you’re going to go into Reddit, go. You’re talking to the hardcore of the hardcore. Yeah, I think if you just try to come out with like a general membership message, it’s probably going to fall a little flat here, but yeah, if you’ve got that kind of quirky, unique, interesting sort of the, what is this or the avid fan in terms of like that sneaker culture? I think this can be great alignments. We also see that it’s, when we think of just like a CPM or a cost-brook, like how much does it cost to get in front of this audience? It’s pretty low, which is a good thing. We’ve seen CPM’s rise quite a bit on Facebook and Instagram, so some of these alternative channels have a much lower cost to entry and can help drive some great traffic at a low cost. We don’t always see it convert quite as well, but in a lot of cases, these campaigns that were running are for awareness. We want you to know that this exhibit’s going on. You might buy tickets at the door versus on our site, and that’s fine, but getting in front of that right audience with the message is important. Just like our TV or out of home would be, and we need to let these people know that the events and the events going on. Okay, let’s talk about Snapchat. So Snapchat’s interesting. We’ve, it’s Snapchat was I think a few years back. It was kind of that additional channel that we would add into the mix to reach a younger audience and then TikTok came along, and it kind of stole all the thunder from from Snapchat. So I think people use these platforms a little bit differently, but ultimately I don’t know that there’s been enough going on to within the ad capabilities and targeting to be able to say like you should absolutely run Snapchat over TikTok. I think for a lot of people when they’re trying to get in front of a younger audience, they don’t necessarily need multiple channels because they’re really just starting to like test out some things. So I’d still prefer to see some more dollars going to TikTok before Snapchat. However, if you are running a large portion of your budget in social media and you’re doing a lot of testing, especially if you’re tracking things like online ticket sales, doing some A/B testing in here, not just TikTok versus Snapchat, but all of your channels to see how they’re going to work at driving that conversion. I think great. Add it into the mix. Use it as one more channel to get in front of that audience and drive that message or sale. But I think for most people, they’re most non-profit attractions. You’re just not spending quite enough in Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to justify adding Snapchat to the mix. You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how non-profit attractions are increasing attendance and sharing their mission through marketing. Your hosts are Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attend Media. Attend Media is a media planning and buying agency specializing in Seas, Aquariums, Gardens and Museums. For more information, please visit attend.media. Now back to Ryan and Jenny. All right, Jenny, so we’ve talked about Pinterest, B-mail, you like it for wedding, holiday planning, travel planning. We talked about Reddit, heavy contextual play, going to reach some hard to reach audiences. Snapchat, maybe is lost a little bit of its thunder. Let’s talk about LinkedIn. Yeah, so I think LinkedIn, we all know is more of our B2B social channel. It is a great way if you’re trying to get in front of that sea level audience or that B2B audience. I think about LinkedIn in terms of organically, it’s a great platform to be able to help spread your mission with other community leaders. It can be a place that you do run some ads. Again, my mind goes back to events. It’s a more expensive platform, so just know you’re not going to have the same CPMs, same cost for clicks as you might have in some other social channels. But it does allow you to get in front of this audience. So events can be a place that you do some testing here to see if you can, you know, for like, especially like your small mid-sized businesses in terms of playing their corporate events and parties. You know, another way that you can maybe align with this is just like donation messaging. So a lot of times it’s the corporations that are making some of these donations to you. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of outreach that is not paid advertising based to drive a lot of this, but you know, I’m thinking around like a giving Tuesday or something. If you ran a few ads to help maybe drive those donations in front of, you know, a community that likely has funds to make those donations. That could be a good, you know, addition to a play on, but ultimately, we know it’s a B2B to play. It’s going to be very small percentage of that social media mix. If you’re doing anything at all, but it’s been a little time organically because I do think this is going to be a good channel that can help you there. Yeah, I like that. Okay, Twitter/X/Elon Musk. What do you got? I mean, stay away, right? Like, there’s probably a case to make for some advertisers out there that it’s not dead yet, and it’s so cheap. So get on it and do it, but I would say for any nonprofit, mission-based organization, it’s too risky. It’s not worth it. A lot of your audience has left. Just stay away from it. I mean, there’s really nothing else to say about it at this point. Okay, what about threads? Threads will keep an eye on. So I think obviously everyone was super hyped with how many people came over. I think it was like 100 million users or something like overnight, practically, because they were pulling a lot of the Facebook and Instagram users over. It’s owned by Meta. If they’re going to put anything behind it, they’re eventually going to have ads on it. But time will tell what they’re going to do with that. And with any new social media platform, it never starts out with advertising opportunities organically with your team. You can maybe be thinking through some ways to maybe present on that channel, but I think there’s just so many other channels that are more important right now to think about how to have a really great organic play and then how to extend paid ads because you can’t even run paid ads on threads. And we kind of touched on this, but I’m thinking YouTube. Where does YouTube fit in this whole mix? Yeah, great question. So YouTube, I think it’s bucketed in a lot of channels. So it does get thrown into the social media channels. But we talked about YouTube as a search engine, right? It’s the number two search engine behind Google. So how to change my water filter? Right, right. So I think that’s an area where you’re bucketing and on your plan. Personally, we don’t bucket it under social media. We usually bucket it under our our digital video play, right? So I’m looking at how to my, you know, 10 or 15 or 30 second ads deliver across maybe programmatic media across any kind of site out there or YouTube specifically. So I’m kind of comparing the channel placement with YouTube versus the rest of the internet. Got it. So YouTube, you’re putting that in your digital video bucket, different ad budget, different strategy, different channel completely. Right. Got it. Well, cool. How do you want to wrap this up? I think just be open to testing. So there’s, you know, think through how your audience is using different platforms, how that aligns with the exhibits or initiatives that you have running each year. And, you know, one of the things that we always say is we, we like to see non-profit attractions spending more in paid social. And this is one of the reasons. There’s a lot more to do out there than just running Facebook ads. And a lot of these channels provide you some opportunity to be in a less cluttered environment. I mean, I know as a user, if I go on Facebook and I scroll through my feed, every single one, you know, I’m hit with attraction after attraction after attraction because I’ve been, you know, this is my job, right? I’m on these sites all the time. So I’m getting retargeted by everyone that’s within a two hour drive of me. And I’m in central Florida. So there’s a lot of a lot of options there. But when I log into some of these other channels, I’m usually not seeing any ads in this space. So they can be a good way to really kind of differentiate yourself and stand out. So not saying you have to have it on your plan, but it’s a good thing to consider based off your initiatives. Jenny. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. If you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to be a guest on the show, please visit our website at marketingattractionspodcast.com.